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Friday, May 13, 2011

Football coaches plan to promote sport

STATE COLLEGE (AP) — The Pennsylvania Scholastic Football Coaches Association unveiled big plans Friday to promote the sport and strengthen ties with in-state college coaches.Group leaders met with Pitt’s Todd Graham, Temple’s Steve Addazio and Penn State’s Joe Paterno at the Nittany Lions’ team headquarters Friday in Happy Valley. Afterward, the high school coaches announced plans to turn an annual coaches clinic into a convention starting next year in Pittsburgh.All college and high school coaches in the state would be invited.“We’ll make that the place to be once a year to support high school football in Pennsylvania,” Clearfield High coach Tim Janocko said.The prep coaches want to resume an East-West all-star game in 2012 following a one-year hiatus this season. The game was previously held in Altoona.The game would be held next year in May at Gateway High School in suburban Pittsburgh, and Downingtown West in eastern Pennsylvania the following season. Both the convention and the all-star game would be rotated to locations around the state.Graham, Addazio and Paterno offered their support to the efforts.“It’s about building relationships,” said Elco High coach Mark Evans. “If you don’t have a prospect, or potential prospect for them, they usually skip your school, so a (convention) like this will enable us to continue to develop a strong relationship with college coaches.”The high school coaches also hope to open high school coaches hall of fame exhibits at three locations around the state: Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia and State College. Plans for the exhibit at Heinz Field, home of the Pittsburgh Steelers, are closest to completion, though Janocko said the group had to wait for the NFL’s lockout to be resolved before the project could proceed.

3 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Moving the game around seems to be okay, but the usual format was for players to stay with a 'host family' which held down costs of housing and feeding the players for the week. Usually, the same families would do that year to year in places like Altoona and Hershey. Moving to a new city every year may be a problem to find enough housing among people not used to doing that. Holding the game in a city that offers some other things to do will make a trip east or west a worthwhile venture beside the game. Having the Big 33 in Hershey is at least a 'destination' with the park and outlets, etc. Who would want to go to Altoona? How many times can you visit the "Curve'? :)

About the blogger

A devoted fan of the Grateful Dead, Bob Marley, 1990s rap and Tom Petty, Mike Kovak works as a sports writer for the Observer-Reporter, a newspaper located in Washington, Pa. Kovak covers high school sports – from football to softball and everything in between. He's known to appear at the random Pitt football and men's basketball game or the occasional West Virginia game and previously helped Steelers beat writer F. Dale Lolley at home games. When not tracking college basketball – his sport of choice – or watching That 70s Show reruns, Kovak is busy playing Mr. Mom for his daughter, Anna Noel Kovak.

Kovak was hired by the Observer-Reporter in 1999. He previously spent two years at the Beaver County Times and four months as an intern at the Tribune-Democrat, located in Johnstown.

Kovak invites any and all movie buffs to exchange lines from classic comedies, such as Anchorman, Caddyshack and The Hangover.

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Mike Kovak is a sports writer for the Observer-Reporter. All content on this blog is Copyright 2011, Observer Publishing Co. Washington, PA. 1998-2009 All Rights Reserved